Google rankings question?

[ptmatt]

Recently I started using SEO spyglass to track my competitors backlinks. My question is this? How do a few of my competitors get the top rankings in the Google Places 7 pack with having very few to no backlinks. These particular websites also don't appear to be optimized very well for the keywords that they are ranking for. I also might ad that these websites are ranking high in an area that is very competitive for the particular keyword phrases i've been researching.

I don't get it, if their not backlinking or optimizing their site for the keywords their ranking at the top for than how do they get the top spots on Google Place?

[iAmNameLess]

You're referring to Google Places. Completely different than the web results. The places listing goes off of completion of the listing, reviews, citations, and of course location.

A good way to evaluate the competition in local places listing, is see the amount of reviews, the amount of citations, and if their listing is complete.

[ptmatt]

Originally Posted by iAmNameLess

You're referring to Google Places. Completely different than the web results. The places listing goes off of completion of the listing, reviews, citations, and of course location.

A good way to evaluate the competition in local places listing, is see the amount of reviews, the amount of citations, and if their listing is complete.

A citation is basically a listing from a web directory correct? I've been told that reviews are important but why have I seen so many listings atop Google Places with 0 reviews?

[iAmNameLess]

Originally Posted by ptmatt

A citation is basically a listing from a web directory correct? I've been told that reviews are important but why have I seen so many listings atop Google Places with 0 reviews?

Because the most important, is the completion of the listing. If the listing is complete, it is much easier to rank. I have ranked people over those with 30 reviews, and they only had 2 or 3. Put as many videos and pictures as possible. Even if the videos are little slideshows of the company and pictures.

Citations, like yelp, citipages, yahoo directory, and things like that.